I’d like to make duck confit and braised short ribs. Can you refer me to your favorite SV recipes?
I like medium too for things like ribeye and skirt. Ribeye is quite fatty while skirt is a bit chewy when medium rare or less. A filet or strip is good medium rare for me.
Yours has been my experience as well and I share your preferences.
No matter the temperature or cut, I like the surface to be sizzling dark brown and well seasoned.
There was a steak restaurant my parents went to for birthdays and special occasions back home in the Pacific Northwest called Jak’s. They would offer an off menu steak called the baseball cut top sirloin that really was just as you’d imagine. As a teen I would order it charred, at the suggestion of one of the waiters, which resulted in a dark brown almost black sizzling surface. Due to the thickness, the center would stay cool and pinkish red. This was one of the best preparations of steak I’ve had. And it was from a nostalgic time in my family.
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I made sous vide carbonara today and I do love how the sauce comes out, but I was reminded again that I just don’t like carbonara as much as amatriciana, gricia, or these days even cacio e pepe.
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Details on the sous vide carbonara?
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Cook at 145° F for around 1 hour. Use your favorite ratios. I much prefer carbonara with frowned-upon-by-purists additions like garlic and onions, so after I render whatever pork product I use (preference is guanciale followed by bacon and then pancetta for me), I set it aside and leave the fat in the pan then add finely diced onion and sauté a few minutes until translucent, then minced garlic, and deglaze with a little white wine (I like the acidity) and cook until pretty much completely reduced. I whisk yolks (plus one whole egg for two portions), black pepper, Parm/pecorino/Grana padano, and some salt and add the sautéed onions. If making more, I use a jar, but for only two portions, it’s better in a bag because the jar will float. I boil the pasta when the sauce is almost ready and toss it in a bowl with the pork and sauce and adjust seasoning.
This method is nice because it’s very simple to make carbonara for a crowd this way and you don’t have to time everything just so. The sauce comes out so silky and creamy, and coats the pasta perfectly.
Very classic recipe here. I like more pork and less cheese:
This one seems to me to be very rich for a small portion of pasta. I use that much egg and yolk for double the amount of pasta and it’s plenty saucy.
Some people do whole eggs and then just crack into the pasta and other ingredients, but I haven’t tried that method myself.
Sous vide pasta carbonara puzzles me. When I make pasta carbonara it takes no more than 20 minutes from when I start a pot of water on the stove until we’re eating. Comes out smooth and creamy even when I’m making a batch big enough for 6. Pot of water on the stove, cut up whatever pork product, toss it into a pan, grate the cheese, separate the eggs and add the yolks to the cheese while keeping an eye on the pork. Pasta into the water, take the crispy pork bits out to drain, lift the pasta from the water into the pan with all that pork fat goodness to toss around and then into the bowl with cheese and mix and toss like a whirling dervish. Top with crisped pork and pepe. Done. The lovely wife in the meantime gets a salad together. Fastest dinner I think we can make.
The duck confit posts reminded me of one of my favorite SV preps. I take whole chicken legs and dry brine them like for duck confit overnight. Then I seal individually legs in a bag with a big spoonful of duck fat. Into the bath they go. I then freeze them. Then when I want to serve, if I thought ahead I will have defrosted some otherwise I drop into a warm water bath to defrost and then either brown in a pan or blast in a hot oven. The duck fat permeates the chicken and makes it to a near duck experience.
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That’s fine. Personally I eat carbonara maybe once a year when I get a rare craving for it. The prep is very simple and I go and do other things while it sits in a bath. Then when I am ready to eat and know other people who famously disappear when food is ready to eat are also ready, I toss sauce in a bowl with pasta and I’m done. Everything is hot, over-cooking and under-cooking is impossible and there’s no having to manage temperature just so (because if you look around the internet, you’ll find people lamenting who either had things too cool to cook the eggs enough, or whose eggs got too hot and ended up with gritty sauce).
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Over the last few days I bagged some carrots using this recipe.
but seasoned with a bit of baharat seasoning from One Spice
And some sous vide pork tenderloin,
… gifted cut in medallions and then seasoned it with a honey spice mix from One Spice.
I am reducing leftover sparkling cider from New Years eve.
Hoping to finish it all in one pan using one of the recipes
“use a heavy skillet, high heat, and a combination of oil and butter… start by heating up the oil until it’s almost smoking-hot, carefully adding in the pork/carrots, then cooking it, turning occasionally, until it’s browned on most sides. I add butter just for the last few minutes of cooking…”
Maybe I will use the dreaded bottled “ghee”/clarified butter.
Ta-dah!
I served with rice.
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Sounds great, but I think cacio e pepe is even faster. I like to amp it up with strips of Hatch chilis…Hatchio e pepe.
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Why dreaded?
Love it!!
I always liked the way Richard Dawson used the word “dreaded” on Family Feud. Also, the ghee thread
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I think I’m going to try sous vide oysters!
I just bought three dozen oysters, but I’m not supposed to be using my arm for things like shucking.
This one has you put them directly in the water bath and reads
“(Note: This process does not cook the oysters. They will still be raw. It simply firms them–which can better please some palates–and makes them easier to shuck.)”
This one claims it increases shelf life.
This one has you use a bag after lining with foil to prevent puntures.
This video is of a guy who shucks them first
Has anyone tried this?
I put 8 larger (Fanny Bay, Royal Miyagi oysters) in a sous vide bag with a foil liner at 185f for 5 minutes, and there was no significant difference in flavor, texture, nor ease of shucking.
I have been a bit disappointed with the small Oishi, of which two of twelve have died so far, and another three were dry. I haven’t checked the tags to see if they were a ll harvested the same day.
Who likes chewier oysters?
The same people who slather them in cocktail sauce?
I enjoy raw oysters in (a good) cocktail sauce. If I’m served ones that are slightly off or from warmer waters, the sauce is very much appreciated.
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When I was 3 or 4 years old (I swear) my grandfather would take me to the raw bar in Baltimore’s old North Avenue Market for oysters. I didn’t even know what they were, but I ate them with him. 
. Cocktail sauce and all!
